2004 Winners!

Alabama Public Television received hundreds
of books from children across the state this year for the
Tenth Annual Reading Rainbow Young Writers & Illustrators
Contest. The goal of the competition was to encourage children
ages 6 to 9 to be creative and have fun doing it.

Entrants were required to write and illustrate their own
work. Subject matter could be prose or poetry, fiction or
non-fiction, and all illustrations were meant to complement
and enhance the text. Each grade was judged separately.
Parents were encouraged to help their children create a
positive, joint learning experience, but the overall concepts
and text had to be the child's.

Each First Place winner will receive a $100
gift certificate from Books-A-Million,
statewide sponsor of the contest. Honorable Mention winners
will receive $50 gift certificates. Books-A-Million
has sponsored the contest since it began ten years ago.
All of the children who sent in books for the contest will
receive special certificates of participation for their
work signed by Reading Rainbow host, LeVar Burton.

The First Place winners' books have now progressed
to the national level Reading Rainbow judging which will
be done in June. National prizes include computers and Reading
Rainbow book and DVD libraries for kids and their schools.

Reading Rainbow is the most-used television
program in American schools. Winner of several Emmy Awards
for Best Children's Television Program and Best Actor in
a Children's Television program, Reading Rainbow airs every
weekday at 12:00 noon on Alabama Public Television.

Alabama's Winning Tradition

In 2002, Haley
Suzanne Stewart of Trinity, Alabama won the National
First Place Grand Prize for Second Grade in the Eighth Annual
Reading Rainbow Young Writers and Illustrators Competition!

Haley's book, I Wished I Had a Sister was
awarded First Place in the state back in April 2002, and
national contest winners were announced in mid-June.

That was the third consecutive year that an
Alabama student has won a national prize in the public television
writing competition that
attracts more than 40,000 entries each year. Two Alabama
girls received national second place prizes in 2000
for their respective grade levels, and another received
a national second place prize in 2001. First and Second
Place Prizes are awarded for competitors in four grade levels,
Kindergarten - Third Grade, that are judged separately.

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